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Big Sioux water quality at risk, board chairman warns

Peter Harriman, 1:08 p.m. CDT June 16, 2014

Mason Horan (left), 14, and his brother Matthew Horan, 21, both of Sioux Falls, fish June 11 in Skunk Creek near Legacy Park. Water quality in the Big Sioux River drainage is affected by more than 200 small to medium-sized livestock operations between Sioux Falls and Brookings. Federal money to help producers improve livestock facilities and management practices is shrinking. Brad Johnson, chairman of the state Board of Water and Natural Resources, says without such funding, water quality will decline.(Photo: Photos by Joe Ahlquist / Argus Leader)

As the Big Sioux River flows from Brookings to Sioux Falls, it winds through a region dotted with dozens of livestock operations too small to require special permits or inspections from the state for waste-handling procedures.

Collectively, though, these 200 or so smaller feedlots have a big effect on water pollution in the Big Sioux, primarily E. coli contamination, according to Brad Johnson, chairman of the South Dakota Board of Water and Natural Resources.

Matthew Horan, 21, of Sioux Falls, fishes in Skunk Creek, which flows into the Big Sioux River, on Wednesday, June 11, 2014, near Legacy Park in Sioux Falls. Water quality in the Big Sioux River drainage is affected by more than 200 small to medium-sized livestock operations between Sioux Falls and Brookings. Federal funding to help producers improve livestock facilities and management practices is shrinking. Brad Johnson, chairman of the South Dakota Board of Water and Natural Resources, says without such funding water quality will decline. (Photo: Joe Ahlquist / Argus Leader)

Mason Horan, 14, and his brother, Matthew Horan (far left), 21, both of Sioux Falls, fish in Skunk Creek, which flows into the Big Sioux River, on Wednesday, June 11, 2014, near Legacy Park in Sioux Falls. Water quality in the Big Sioux River drainage is affected by more than 200 small to medium-sized livestock operations between Sioux Falls and Brookings. Federal funding to help producers improve livestock facilities and management practices is shrinking. Brad Johnson, chairman of the South Dakota Board of Water and Natural Resources, says without such funding water quality will decline. (Photo: Joe Ahlquist / Argus Leader)

Mason Horan (left), 14, and his brother, Matthew Horan, 21, both of Sioux Falls, fish in Skunk Creek, which flows into the Big Sioux River, on Wednesday, June 11, 2014, near Legacy Park in Sioux Falls. Water quality in the Big Sioux River drainage is affected by more than 200 small to medium-sized livestock operations between Sioux Falls and Brookings. Federal funding to help producers improve livestock facilities and management practices is shrinking. Brad Johnson, chairman of the South Dakota Board of Water and Natural Resources, says without such funding water quality will decline. (Photo: Joe Ahlquist / Argus Leader)

Cattle graze on Thursday, June 12, 2014, along Skunk Creek, which flows into the Big Sioux River, west of Sioux Falls. Water quality in the Big Sioux River drainage is affected by more than 200 small to medium-sized livestock operations between Sioux Falls and Brookings. Federal funding to help producers improve livestock facilities and management practices is shrinking. Brad Johnson, chairman of the South Dakota Board of Water and Natural Resources, says without such funding water quality will decline. (Photo: Joe Ahlquist / Argus Leader)

Mason Horan, 14, of Sioux Falls, fishes in Skunk Creek, which flows into the Big Sioux River, on Wednesday, June 11, 2014, near Legacy Park in Sioux Falls. Water quality in the Big Sioux River drainage is affected by more than 200 small to medium-sized livestock operations between Sioux Falls and Brookings. Federal funding to help producers improve livestock facilities and management practices is shrinking. Brad Johnson, chairman of the South Dakota Board of Water and Natural Resources, says without such funding water quality will decline. (Photo: Joe Ahlquist / Argus Leader)

Mason Horan, 14, of Sioux Falls, fishes in Skunk Creek, which flows into the Big Sioux River, on Wednesday, June 11, 2014, near Legacy Park in Sioux Falls. Water quality in the Big Sioux River drainage is affected by more than 200 small to medium-sized livestock operations between Sioux Falls and Brookings. Federal funding to help producers improve livestock facilities and management practices is shrinking. Brad Johnson, chairman of the South Dakota Board of Water and Natural Resources, says without such funding water quality will decline. (Photo: Joe Ahlquist / Argus Leader)

Cattle graze on Thursday, June 12, 2014, along Skunk Creek, which flows into the Big Sioux River, west of Sioux Falls. Water quality in the Big Sioux River drainage is affected by more than 200 small to medium-sized livestock operations between Sioux Falls and Brookings. Federal funding to help producers improve livestock facilities and management practices is shrinking. Brad Johnson, chairman of the South Dakota Board of Water and Natural Resources, says without such funding water quality will decline. (Photo: Joe Ahlquist / Argus Leader)

Mason Horan (left), 14, gets help from his brother, Matthew Horan, 21, both of Sioux Falls, unhooking a fish while fishing in Skunk Creek, which flows into the Big Sioux River, on Wednesday, June 11, 2014, near Legacy Park in Sioux Falls. Water quality in the Big Sioux River drainage is affected by more than 200 small to medium-sized livestock operations between Sioux Falls and Brookings. Federal funding to help producers improve livestock facilities and management practices is shrinking. Brad Johnson, chairman of the South Dakota Board of Water and Natural Resources, says without such funding water quality will decline. (Photo: Joe Ahlquist / Argus Leader)

Cattle graze on Thursday, June 12, 2014, along Skunk Creek, which flows into the Big Sioux River, west of Sioux Falls. Water quality in the Big Sioux River drainage is affected by more than 200 small to medium-sized livestock operations between Sioux Falls and Brookings. Federal funding to help producers improve livestock facilities and management practices is shrinking. Brad Johnson, chairman of the South Dakota Board of Water and Natural Resources, says without such funding water quality will decline. (Photo: Joe Ahlquist / Argus Leader)

Mason Horan (left), 14, and his brother, Matthew Horan, 21, both of Sioux Falls, fish in Skunk Creek, which flows into the Big Sioux River, on Wednesday, June 11, 2014, near Legacy Park in Sioux Falls. Water quality in the Big Sioux River drainage is affected by more than 200 small to medium-sized livestock operations between Sioux Falls and Brookings. Federal funding to help producers improve livestock facilities and management practices is shrinking. Brad Johnson, chairman of the South Dakota Board of Water and Natural Resources, says without such funding water quality will decline. (Photo: Joe Ahlquist / Argus Leader)

Matthew Horan, 21, of Sioux Falls, fishes in Skunk Creek, which flows into the Big Sioux River, on Wednesday, June 11, 2014, near Legacy Park in Sioux Falls. Water quality in the Big Sioux River drainage is affected by more than 200 small to medium-sized livestock operations between Sioux Falls and Brookings. Federal funding to help producers improve livestock facilities and management practices is shrinking. Brad Johnson, chairman of the South Dakota Board of Water and Natural Resources, says without such funding water quality will decline. (Photo: Joe Ahlquist / Argus Leader)

Mason Horan (left), 14, and his brother, Matthew Horan, 21, both of Sioux Falls, fish in Skunk Creek, which flows into the Big Sioux River, on Wednesday, June 11, 2014, near Legacy Park in Sioux Falls. Water quality in the Big Sioux River drainage is affected by more than 200 small to medium-sized livestock operations between Sioux Falls and Brookings. Federal funding to help producers improve livestock facilities and management practices is shrinking. Brad Johnson, chairman of the South Dakota Board of Water and Natural Resources, says without such funding water quality will decline. (Photo: Joe Ahlquist / Argus Leader)

Mason Horan, 14, baits his hook while fishing with his brother, Matthew Horan, 21, both of Sioux Falls, in Skunk Creek, which flows into the Big Sioux River, on Wednesday, June 11, 2014, near Legacy Park in Sioux Falls. Water quality in the Big Sioux River drainage is affected by more than 200 small to medium-sized livestock operations between Sioux Falls and Brookings. Federal funding to help producers improve livestock facilities and management practices is shrinking. Brad Johnson, chairman of the South Dakota Board of Water and Natural Resources, says without such funding water quality will decline. (Photo: Joe Ahlquist / Argus Leader)

Cattle graze on Thursday, June 12, 2014, along Skunk Creek, which flows into the Big Sioux River, west of Sioux Falls. Water quality in the Big Sioux River drainage is affected by more than 200 small to medium-sized livestock operations between Sioux Falls and Brookings. Federal funding to help producers improve livestock facilities and management practices is shrinking. Brad Johnson, chairman of the South Dakota Board of Water and Natural Resources, says without such funding water quality will decline. (Photo: Joe Ahlquist / Argus Leader)

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The seven-member board, appointed by the governor, is responsible for establishing a state water plan and overseeing the programs to carry it out.

The board is limited, however, because curbing pollution from these type of operations in South Dakota depends on voluntary participation, usually in exchange for payments, and federal money for such agreements has been declining.

The programs, for example, might pay ranchers to put up buffers to stop livestock from grazing in certain areas where animal waste is most likely to spill directly into a river or stream.

"If we are going to take a voluntary approach to this, we have to come up with additional sources of money to make it an effective program," Johnson said.

From 2001 to 2004, South Dakota received $3.8 million annually in federal Clean Water Act funding to manage "non-point source" pollution, the type that doesn't come from a single discharge pipe but from small trickles across a wide area.

In 2005, that funding fell to $3.2 million a year, and in 2012 it dropped again to $2.5 million, said Jim Feeney, director of the DENR's division of financial and technical assistance.

Meanwhile, Johnson argued, the state's water quality worsened. Of the 6,160 miles of rivers and streams in South Dakota assessed from 2008 to last year, only 30.6 percent were clean enough to support their intended use. That's down from 35 percent in the previous year's report, which looked at waterways assessed between 2007 and 2012.

South Dakota officials have offset some of the federal funding decline by combining it with about $500,000 a year from the state's Clean Water State Revolving Fund Program.

Legislative leaders are wary, though, about creating impediments to a livestock industry that recently has begun to expand thanks to record prices. And state officials say, counterintuitively, that water quality in the state actually might be improving.

"All of us in this business believe we are gaining," said Pete Jahraus, head of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources' nonpoint source pollution program.

"It's not put in something today and see the results tomorrow," he said. "This whole system takes so long to change over time."

Sen. Shantel Krebs, R-Renner, chairman of the state Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, said livestock producers are taking it upon themselves to learn best management practices for handling waste and implementing them.

"We don't always need a law for everything," she said. "It boils down to education. They're doing that in the water districts, sharing information. Look at how much we're improving in the Big Sioux already. We're making strides."

Sen. Jason Frerichs, D-Wilmot, the committee's ranking member, points out there is limited acreage for raising livestock. Years of robust commodities prices continue to encourage farmers to convert pastures to crop production.

"The good areas for livestock are sloped. They can't be farmed," Frerichs said. Unfortunately, slopes see increased runoff. Runoff, he notes, "flows into a river system."

Krebs and Frerichs also note that nutrients from lawns and golf courses and urban runoff that flows over concrete and asphalt directly into streams have a role in water pollution, in addition to agriculture.

Both legislators said there isn't much appetite in Pierre for tougher regulations for livestock producers to improve water quality.

"We have to be very cautious in terms of limiting producers' abilities," Frerichs agreed. "From my standpoint, I'm not a fan of increasing the hammer or stepping up enforcement."

Such sentiments don't surprise Johnson. But he is blunt about declaring what they mean for South Dakota's water quality.

"At the Board of Water and Natural Resources, we are trying to become creative in using loan and grant programs to maximize the dollars available," he said. But even augmenting federal money with state funds and with farm bill conservation programs isn't making headway.

"We're losing ground," Johnson said, "and we're going to continue to lose ground until we decide as a state and country that we're going to get serious about the issue."